Dictionary.com’s Word of the Year is ‘Complicit’ Because of Ivanka Trump

The dictionary is wading into political territory.

In a blog post on Monday, Dictionary.com announced its 2017 Word of the Year is “complicit.” According to Dictionary.com, the word “complicit” first spiked in interest following a “Saturday Night Live” skit that accused Ivanka Trump of being “complicit” in her father’s presidency. On April 5, the word allegedly had its largest spike after Ivanka discussed the word at length in an interview with CBS.

The word “complicit” also received a bump in searches after Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake said he would not be “complicit” in the Trump presidency.

(Image source: Dictionary.com)

In a press release, Dictionary.com CEO Liz McMillan said, “Lookups for the word complicit increased by nearly 300 percent in searches in 2017 as compared to 2016.”

“We continue to see a direct correlation between trending word lookups and current events, and we find it encouraging that our users are dedicated to understanding the language and words that pop up in the biggest news stories of the year,” she continued.

Other word searches that reportedly received spikes in traffic in 2017 were “intersex,” “totality,” and “horologist.”

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